A Chance Meeting
by LuckyPenny123
Summary: When Lily Evans met James Potter on a train she didn't think she'd ever see him again. But she did and maybe, just maybe, it was something more than just a meeting between two strangers on a random train in uptown Manhattan... AU, oneshot. Please please read and review.


**A/N: Hello everyone! I have a new story! It's an AU (something completely different to what I usually do) and James and Lily which is kind of scary because I love them so much and don't want to get them wrong so tell me what you think! This is actually based on a real event. I've just come back from holiday in New York and had a very similar chance meeting with the most beautiful guy I've ever seen on the train. He caught me from falling and then smiled at me and, oh I'm in love... I wish my life was a movie so I would bump in to him again and we'd live happily ever after... But it's not**** And so I decided to get Lily and James to act out what I wished had happened. Not that I'm anywhere near as cool as Lily, I'm just a seventeen year old girl with an unhealthy addiction to Harry Potter... Anyway, the story...**

**A Chance Meeting**

Lily Evans was running late. Horribly, utterly, completely late and about to cry because of it. She'd already had to walk halfway across Manhattan, drag a ridiculously heavy suitcase down the crowded steps of the subway on 125th street and now- Now she'd gone and missed her train and had no idea when the next one would be.

The heat down on the platform made her back prickle uncomfortably, the nape of her neck hot and sweaty as she hopped impatiently from foot to foot. Not for the first time she cursed her colouring. With pale skin that was liable to turn bright red when too hot and hair to match she probably resembled a tomato at the moment. And not an attractive looking one at that. She sighed again, brightening slightly when she saw the all familiar red lights of a train coming round the corner and thanked her lucky stars when it was the right one. Heaving the suitcase on, she looked up and down the carriage for a spare seat. She'd just wedged it in to a conveniently placed corner when the train lurched forward, jolting her backwards, a cry on her lips as she started falling, not sure if she'd stop-

A hand caught her hip, gentle but firm as it pushed her back to her feet, a warm chuckle accompanying it. Lily turned around, positive that she now looked like a beetroot, so flushed with embarrassment were her cheeks and immediately felt like running off the train. The hand that had saved her was attached to a man, and a rather good-looking one. Dark messy hair, twinkling eyes behind thick glasses, crooked half smile blinding her.

She blushed harder, ducking her head and mumbling out a quick thank you as she took her seat.

"No problem," He smiled wider, "You know, I knew that was going to happen."

He looked at her expectantly as her receding blush instantly rose back to her cheeks. Still she tried not to let it show, sitting up straighter as she replied.

"Oh really?"

"Mm hmm. You alright though? We wouldn't want a pretty young lady like you getting hurt now, would we?"

"Hmm, no. I was just lucky you were there to save me." She clasped a hand over her heart, pretend swooning and wondering if it was a bit much to bat her eyelashes. Her friends always had said she was too dramatic but if anything his grin widened.

"Well it's not every day you meet a dashingly handsome chap like me on the subway."

"And what an absolute travesty that is," she muttered dryly and turned to pull her book out of her bag.

When she looked up again, the boy was holding out his hand, "I'm James Potter. It's a pleasure to meet you."

She couldn't help a smile, placing her hand in his. He was so obviously posh with his deep voice and English accent. Obviously posh in an adorably sweet way and even though she could tell his type, arrogant, knows he's a looker, she could feel herself warming to him anyway.

"Lily Evans."

"Well Miss Evans, I'm charmed to make your acquaintance. And now you'll have to tell me - what's a pretty young girl like you doing riding alone on the subway late at night?"

She rolled her eyes, gesturing at the suitcase, "Isn't it kind of obvious?"

He laughed, twinkling eyes capturing hers. "Let me guess, going on holiday to an exotic turquoise-sea beach where you'll laze around all day with gorgeous lifeguards handing you smoothies while you mope over the fact that James Potter isn't there too."

"Ah, you got me. How did you know?"

"Well, I am told I'm rather a catch. I've had girls swooning at my feet since I was two." He puffed out his chest and she laughed out her next words.

"Sure... I bet it was your mum, wasn't it? Probably fainting because she was so distraught she had you as a son."

"Please. Don't try to pretend you don't want me."

She laughed again. She seemed to be doing a lot of that around this crazy haired boy and shook her head. "God no, imagine having to spend a prolonged amount of time with someone like you." Fake shuddering, she watched out of the corner of her eye for his reaction.

James clutched his heart, "Oh you wound me. How could you be so mean? I'm just a simple boy who-"

"Craves attention?"

"Well yes." James grinned again, the smile lighting up his face, eyes twinkling even more wildly behind the glasses. "But Miss Evans, back to the subject at hand. I do believe I have an unanswered question."

Lily looked at him, at the suitcase and sighed. "Work. I'm a doctor for Doctors Without Borders. So your idea of a beach holiday couldn't be further from the truth. I'm off to Syria now. Hot dusty streets and a chance of being killed."

She smiled wryly as he whistled. "A doctor, huh? Well, I'm impressed. And for MSF? I feel like such an aimless youth- still at uni and not really sure what I want to do." He sat back, the serious expression quickly being replaced by a smirk. "But still, a doctor?" His grin widened as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, "Well, I'm always free if you want to check me up."

Lily slapped his arm, trying to stifle the laugh rising up in her chest as she turned her face away to hide her blush. Again.

"Are you ever serious?"

"Who me? Nuh-uh, he's my best friend."

Her eyebrows rose.

"No seriously, I have a friend called Sirius!"

"As if. What kind of name is that?"

"A very serious one, reserved only for posh English boys with shoulder length wavy hair."

She wrinkled her nose and he reached up a finger to lightly flick it. "You know, you're cute when you do that."

"Oh really? Are you trying to impress me? You know, it's not going to work. I'm a sophisticated grown up woman who won't fall for your charm."

"At least you don't deny the fact that I have charm."

She laughed again, sure she was coming across as one of those awful giggly girls but unable to help it. He grinned some more, shoulders straightening. "Besides, I could get any girl I wanted."

"Not really the kind of thing a girl wants to hear James."

"You said my name!"

"Huh?"

"My name. You said it! For like the first time-" Catching sight of her confused expression he stopped. "Never mind." Sighing, he let his eyes wander across the train as it pulled in to another stop.  
"Oh shit, I mean shite, er sugar?"

She looked at him, amused, as he leapt to his feet. "This is my stop. I - er - here." James pulled a pen out of his pocket as the doors started to open, scribbling something illegible on her proffered hand. "Call me? And see you around. Lily." And he leapt off the train and was gone.

Lily Evans was left sitting, completely nonplussed and slightly confused as she stared at the black scrawl on her hand and then at the waving boy on the platform as the train rolled out of the station towards the airport. 'And that was it,' she thought, 'because life isn't a movie where they would fall in love on a chance meeting and vow to stay together forever.' The writing on her hand wasn't legible and James Potter was just a boy she met on a train once upon a time. She rubbed her palm on her jeans and sank in to the seat, watching the tunnel lights flash past and her life move on.

Life isn't a movie and Lily Evans was very aware of that fact. It was precisely the reason why she never expected to meet James Potter ever again, least of all halfway across the world from New York and the subway on 125th Street. Things like that just didn't happen, unless your name was something ridiculous and you were an actor in a cheesy rom-com with Ryan Gosling. No, it just never happened.

And so when, one extremely hazy day a good few years later, she left the small hut that acted as a doctor's clinic in the latest war-torn country she was in and came face to face with a very familiar shock of black hair and glasses, dressed in a blue uniform, she thought she must be dreaming.

But no, James Potter smiled that crooked grin (no matter how hard she tried she had never gotten it right in her memories) and stuck out his hand. "Lily Evans. I don't recall ever receiving a phone call from you?"

And Lily blushed (as usual) and smiled, placing a small hand in his and wandering whether life wasn't more like the movies than she had originally thought and whether she might have a fairy tale after all. The doctor and UN policeman taking on the world. And she'd look back at this moment in fifty years' time and identify it as something important. But for now, now it was just the beginning and she couldn't wait to see what it would bring.

**Thank you so much for reading. Remember, reviews will make my day (life) and put me in a good mood for the rest of the w****eek. Do you really want to make my family suffer because I didn't get any reviews? Take pity on them and let me know what you thought! xx**


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